The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent government agency that provides mail delivery and other services to the public. The USPS is widely recognized as a safe and reliable means for sending and receiving mail and other items. With the advent and steady growth of electronic mail and electronic commerce, the physical mail stream will increasingly be utilized for sending and receiving packages. By virtue of the limited size of a typical mailbox and due to the fact that many recipients may not be at home when an item is delivered, recipients may need to physically visit a central location, such as a post office, in order to obtain a package. For example, a recipient may need to go to a post office to pick up a package if the package was too large for the recipient's mail box or if the sender required personal delivery and the package delivery was attempted when the recipient was not at home.
Therefore, the need to efficiently provide item delivery notification in a delivery system has become a common need for the United States Postal Service and many other organizations. More specifically, efficiently providing a link between the contents of a physical mailbox and a notification address has become a critical service for many delivery system operators. This is because in an increasingly competitive environment, meeting and exceeding the expectations of those who receive a service is essential for a service provider.
One solution to the item delivery notification problem is for the system operator to provide a notification at the address where the item was to be delivered if the item delivery cannot be completed. For example, the delivery system operator may attempt to deliver a package, but learns after a visit to the physical mailbox that the package is too large for the physical mail box or that the recipient is not home to receive the package as required by the sender. In this situation, the delivery system operator will provide a notification of the attempted delivery at the recipient's address. Typically, this notification is in the form of a note card left at the recipient's physical mailbox. This procedure, however, requires that the recipient return to the recipient's address to receive the notification. Great inefficiencies are created in this procedure because, for example, if the recipient on the way home from work passes the post office containing the package, the recipient may be required to make a special trip to obtain the item or must delay receiving the package and combine obtaining the package with another trip. Accordingly, efficiently providing item delivery notification in a delivery system remains an elusive goal. Thus, there remains a need for efficiently providing item delivery notification services in a delivery system. In addition, there remains a need for efficiently linking contents of a physical mailbox with a notification address.